Don't You (Forget About Me)
by TheBaronsVeve
Summary: Tony joins Loki for some late night movies and cereal. Unexpected serious discussions ensue.


It was a Saturday morning, it was in the spring-that nice time in Malibu when the heat was not so brutal that you could still wear long sleeve hoodies and not sweat to death within the first twenty minutes or so, but warm enough that when you wake up at 4:00 am you are terribly uncomfortable. That was the case when Tony's eyes slid open at just about 3:56, and he realized with utter disdain that he had to peel his body off of the mattress.

"Ugh. Shit…" he grappled about in the darkness, searching for the ever present blanket thief who had chilled skin and luminescent green eyes. He found nothing but a crumpled pile of sheets and that was when he noticed the dim light coming from underneath the sliding door and realized that yes, in fact he was very much alone in the room.

With a sigh, he unpeeled his skin from the red silk sheets and headed for the source of the dim light. As he headed down the hallway towards the stairs he heard the soft pattering of bare feet on the tile in the living room below and the sound of someone settling in against the couch. He reached the bottom of the stairs, noting the crunching of something beneath his feet when he finally stepped onto the tile.

With a curse he glanced down at the purple dust half on his foot and half on the muted pearl flooring. As if that didn't tip him off enough, there was an open carton of milk on the counter, a _tell tale_ of nefarious deeds performed only at strange hours by the _alien_ who had taken up residence in their home since…

Well, since it had been his home. Tony felt another crunch beneath his foot and rolled dark eyes. He heard the dialogue coming through the indescribably expensive sound system before he actually saw the plasma screen.

"My office is right across that hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have a question. Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"

"You'll get the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday."

There was a quiet hum of approval that Tony could distinctly peg anytime, anywhere. He rounded the corner and laid eyes upon what could only be described as his entire world thinly veiled in pale skin. Curled against the armrest of the dark leather couch, wearing (surprise) striped pajamas, and sporting absolutely wicked bed head was Loki. He had a bowl in his hand but his eyes were so drawn to the screen that he had begun to become dangerously close to spilling some of it's liquid contents onto the leather.

Tony noted, with a twinge of something to be left unsaid, that there were two spoons in the bowl.  
"You left a trail, you know."

Loki's smile was one of total contentment and a hint of rarely seen but entirely pure joy at the sound of Tony's voice.  
Tony was now standing in front of the once god of mischief, peering down at him with the smallest grin tugging at one side of his mouth.

"You would make a terrible spy." He said, snatching the other spoon out of the bowl and waving it accusingly at his spouse, letting little droplets of milk fly freely into the air.

"Natasha would be appalled. Leaving Fruit Loops all over the floor? It's a rookies mistake." He took an emphatic seat on the couch, eyeing the taller man in the striped PJ's with a fuller grin now.

Loki just smirked and stuck his spoon in his mouth, refusing to defend his now-title of 'The Worst Spy Ever'. Tony turned his attention to the screen just in time to see Molly Ringwald give an utterly disgusted expression to which Tony glanced down at the bowl of Fruit Loops, then back to the screen again.

"Are you.." he leaned a little closer to Loki, one eyebrow cocked in a display of amusement and mockery. "..eating breakfast.." Tony's spoon dug into the bowl and claimed a heaping gathering of fruit flavored 'O's. "..while watching The Breakfast Club?"

He shoved the spoon in his mouth and managed to expertly avoid dumping 90% of the contents of that spoon onto himself. Through his mouthful Tony commented, "How meta."

Loki snickered a little and gave Tony a playful shove with one foot. "You are interrupting Judd Nelson. Please stop."  
Tony's eyebrows shot up. "Oh…well…pardon me for interrupting your man crush. Actually you know what? No. He's supposed to be like, ten. So-your _boy_ crush."

Loki's polite smile turned into an all out grin at that. "Firstly, Anthony, not everyone attends high school at the age of ten-"  
"Present company excluded of course, because um, I did."  
"-so I believe Mr. Nelson was intended to be around the age of seventeen. Secondly, if it _were_ the case that I had this proposed 'boy crush' on Mr. Nelson we would have much larger problems."

"Gods, you would, wouldn't you? Just like every other girl in the 80's. Always go for the misunderstood bad boy. And what's wrong with Brian? He likes physics, you know."  
Loki rolled those luminescent green eyes that Tony had been searching for in the darkness only a few minutes ago. "Do not be so ridiculous, Anthony. You are John Bender."

Tony cocked a brow as he dug his spoon back into the bowl with such enthusiasm that Loki had to suddenly grip the thing to avoid upending it all over the both of them. "And how do you figure that, Lolo."

The question was posed more as a statement, as if Tony suspected Loki of simply trying to backtrack. The former god eyed him with an expression that said he knew that's exactly what Tony was thinking. "Because: In most instances people do not understand why you do what you do. They believe you to be arrogant, or disorganized. However, if they took the required time to understand you they would see that there is method to your madness." He paused, setting his spoon back into the bowl. "An order to your chaos." A feather light smile drifted across his features.

And well, shit. Tony wasn't expecting a serious answer and he sure wasn't expecting an answer quite like _that_.

"Oh." Was his eloquent reply.

Loki seemed to realize instantly that Tony had not quite been prepared for that particularly heartwarming outburst so he simply kept his mouth shut as he shifted a little closer, drawing his knees up so his feet rested on the couch, and set the bowl balancing half on his own knee and half on Tony's.  
"You know who I think you'd be?" Tony asked, using his fingers to pick out a red Fruit Loop, then a green one. "You'd be Claire."

Loki scrunched his nose and folded his arms in a terribly pouty gesture. "_Why_? Because I am a 'princess'?" He all but hissed.

Tony chuckled and answered, "No. Because she was the only one who really understood Bender. She pretended to hate him the whole damn time, well I mean I guess she really _did_ hate him, but I think she only hated him like that because she actually understood him. And he understood her. And that's why they get together. It's not some cute teenage love story. It's about understanding people because you're like them. They were both damaged but in different ways. When they finally took the time to understand one another-there ya have it. Instant chemistry. Instant romance. All the mushy stuff."

"Mushy stuff."  
Tony chuckled around another mouthful. "Mmm."  
The silence that hung between them after that was comfortable, the only sounds remaining, coming from the spoons in the bowl and the cutting one liners delivered on-screen.

"Anthony…?"  
Tony's eyes shot open and it was only then that he realized he'd actually fallen asleep during that conversation lull. "Wha….." He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and blinked owlishly at the god who he had ended up leaning against, apparently.

"Shit. Sorry, babe."

He shifted a little, pulling his body off the god and leaning himself back against the couch. The film was clearly finished, the screen gone dark with the sky beyond just beginning to turn the faintest shade of pink. There were a soft pair of hands entwined in his, pulling him back against Loki, a rush of breath pushing out of his lungs at the impact against the other mans body.

"Do not ever leave me."

It was a rare confession of fear, a rare moment of Loki's insecurity drawn out of him by the early morning and the intimate thoughts he always seemed to have in these hours. Tony said nothing- really, what could he say? They both knew that someday that would happen. They both knew he was mortal and that Loki was, well, not.

But, for now, they could fool themselves into forgetting such morbid things as the mortal coil. So instead of words, Tony used a gentle kiss placed against Loki's white knuckles to assure him that day would never come.

"Come on, Claire-" Tony teased. "-lets go to bed."


End file.
